Have a Tiki New Year!

Happy New Year! Although, I've been a tiki lover for years, 2010 was the first year for Let's Tiki.  It was an amazing one.  I've be blown away with the warm reception that I've had from the Tiki Community.  I have had a blast meeting so many great new tiki friends across the Internet.  Thank you to everyone who has made Let's Tiki part of your life.  I look forward to a great 2011 and wish you a great 2011 as well!

Mahalo and Happy New Year!

Damon

Tropical Tiki Thanksgiving Recipes

Traditional Hawaiian PoiGive your traditional Thanksgiving dinner a Polynesian twist with some of these recipes.  

Teriyaki Turkey

This one is sure to be a crowd pleaser.  Marinate your turkey breast overnight in a Brown Sugar, Soy Sauce, Sherry, Ground Ginger, and Garlic marinade.  Full Recipe at allrecipes.com

Rum & Cherry Cornbread Stuffing

Forget boring old celery.  This rum and cornbread stuffing has 3/4 cup rum, dried cherries, turkey sausage for a change.  This easy recipe can be made one day ahead of time.  Full Recipe from Celebrations.com

Tropical Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Give your sweet potatoes a taste of the island by adding some pineapple.  With this recipe from Taste of Home.

Poi

What Tiki Thanksgiving would be complete without some of everyone's favorite edible wall paper paste.  If you really want to know how to make it check out this food network article. 

Tropical Pumpkin Pie

This isn't your Grandma's pumpkin pie.  A little coconut, pineapple and ginger will surprise your family on Thanksgiving.  Recipe from Butterball.com

How to Make a Suffering Bastard

Happy Tiki Tuesday!  This week for Tiki Tuesday we'll be making a Suffering Bastard.  The Suffering Bastard was invented at the Shepard Hotel in Cairo, Egypt and is a classic Tiki cocktail.  

To make a Suffering Bastard add some ice to your cocktail shaker then add:

• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Bourbon
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• Dash of Bitters

Shake well.  I always like to shake my drinks until the shaker gets really cold and sometimes even frosty. Then, pour the drink into a highball glass, or whatever you have.  The drink tastes the same in any glass.  Top it off with 4 oz of ginger beer or ginger ale.  Stir to mix in the ginger beer.  You can garnish it wish an orange slice.  

The gin and bourbon really blend in nicely with the combination of the lime juice, ginger beer, and bitters.  Even if you aren't a gin or bourbon fan give this one a try.  It blends well and the ginger tastes great!

Enjoy!

Come back next week for the next installment of Tiki Tuesday.  If you have a drink recipe you'd like to recommend for Tiki Tuesday send me a message using the contact form on letstiki.com, or find us on Twitter at twitter.com/LetsTiki

Mahalo!

How to Make a Molokai Mike

The Molokai Mike is a famous Trader Vic's recipe, and looks pretty impressive because it is a layered drink.  Don't let that scare you though it is really easy to make. You make the Molokai Mike in two parts first make the bottom layer and then the top layer.

To make a Molokai Mike combine in a blender: 

1 oz Silver Rum

1 oz Orange Juice

1/2 oz Brandy

1/2 oz Orgeat Syrup

1/2 Cup Ice

Blend the first group of ingredients for just  a few seconds. Just enough so that is is blended, but still slushy. Pour the bottom layer into a glass.

Then, to make the top layer combine in a blender:

1 oz Gold Rum

1 oz Grenadine

1 Cup Crushed Ice

Blend the second group of ingredients very thoroughly so the mixture becomes thick. Then, slowly pour the top layer into the glass, and it will float on top of the bottom layer.  It's really pretty easy. If I can do it anyone can.  You can garnish it with some fruit or an umbrella and serve.

What Drinks Can you Make? Ask The Grogalizer

It can be difficult to figure out what tiki drinks you can make with the ingredients that you have on hand.  It always takes me a while to flip through the recipe books until I find one that I can make.

Grogalizer.com solves this problem by telling you what drinks you can make.  Here is how it works.  You create an account on grogalizer.com.  When you set up your account you indicate what tiki recipe books you own.  Then, select the Juices, Mixers, Liquors, and Liquers that you have in your home tiki bar.  Next, click on the "The Drinks" tab to get a list of the drink that you can make.  

The results tell you what book the recipe is in and what page it is on.  Be sure to select, "only books that I own" from the drop down at the top of the page so that it only returns drinks that you have the recipe for. You can then rate the drinks, and comment on them.

Grogalizer.com is a great site to figure out what drinks you can make.  The only drawback is that you have to own the books to get the recipes.  However, a ton of time and work went in to producing those books so it is definitely worth spending a couple bucks and buying the books.